Wednesday, October 26, 2011

When I was home on vacation the first day my cousin Fred brought me a gift in his truck.

A beautiful mahogany bookcase!

It belonged to my Grandmothers sister and the family genealogist.

Fred has been so generous to bring all of her records, diaries, letters and various other things that belonged to my Great Grandparents.

He told me it always sat in the front room in her farmhouse with all her things in it that I now have.

So I was able to empty out 3 Rubbermaid bins of the diaries and put them back where they belong.

Here Fred and I are after I got all my Grandparents pieces we own in the top 2 shelves and then pictures and Aunt Annie's books.

It looks so good in the dining room of 1515. My brother has the one similar my Grandparents had in the same spot

You can kind of make it out in the upper left corner.

This picture was taken in 1977 for my Grandfathers 90th birthday. Yes, that is me on the very right.

Looks like we still like having our picture taken in the same spot.

Mary to my left and Marty 2nd from the right are in the 1977 picture with me.

It was one of the good things that happened while I was on vacation. 1515 is such a healing place for all of us. The stress seems to be gone when we are they and it is replaced my laughs, and old and new memories of the love we have for our family.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

my sweet Heidi girl had a seizure the day after I left Tuesday and had to be put asleep

my heart is broken.....

Shadow, my husbands shop dog ran away﻿ on Friday

So I have not forgotten you all, I just do not feel I have anything I want to post right now.

My birthday was good, my cousins still came even though they had just lost their dear brother. It was good we were all together.

It was so hard to come home last night, but Mr. made me lasagna, bought me my favorite Krispy Kreme pumpkin doughnuts, cleaned all the carpets and put all of Heidi's things away so I would not get upset.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Every time my cousins and I hear a train, we say "there goes Grandad". Now when I hear the train I will think, "there goes Grandad and Tom"

My sweet wonderful cousin Tom just passed away. He loved trains, he loved telling me about Grandad's experiences as a Conductor and Brakeman on the Nickel Plate RR.

Tom has been ill for 2 1/2 years. I am relieved he is no longer in pain, but my heart aches to know I will never hear his wonderful bounding voice, laugh at his joyous sense of humor or share a quite evening with him.

Please pray for his loving and devoted wife and children.

﻿Here Tom and his wife are on the steps of 1515 where for many generations our family has had their pictures taken.

This was taken the week I took possession of 1515 after our families 31 year absence. It was the week of our family reunion. It was the week Tom found out his life would never be the same.

Each of the 8 cousins all got keys when they came to 1515. Tom was so thrilled to get his. As he walked in the house it was truly and experience to watch him walk through the house, at one point he laid his hand on the plaster wall, closed his eyes.........the place is our heart.

Luckily over the next 2 years it was not his only visit. He and his wife and daughter came and stayed one weekend. The two of us stayed up and talked to wee in the morning. I knew how lucky I was to have that precious time with him all to myself. We talked about the house, the history, the family and the "what if" that was ahead of him.

My cousins and I drove to Chicago last summer for his birthday. See, he got a RR hat and his brother got a top hat......see they played "circus" at 1515 when they were kids and they broke the chandelier!

There were reunions, we played baseball, we saw each other at weddings, we saw each other at funerals.

This is 7 of us at his Mother's funeral....my brother was missing. It seems there is always one of us missing.

Now we will never be whole again.

But the time we did have was splendid.

Tom holding court with his kids and cousins at 1515

2009

Tom and I with his sister Deb and Grandad

same dining room 1970

Tom and I with my brother and his brother on the front

porch at 1515

Here all the cousins minus John who was in Vietnam

Us having fun with my Dad

Thank goodness for pictures, I have memories but pictures just help add to the true memory of the event.

This coming weekend is my birthday and our biannual "cousins weekend" at 1515.

I don't know if we will be there or not, but no doubt we will be together.

There will be tears, there will be stories and there will be laughter.

I sometimes wonder if buying 1515 when we did was for a reason I did not know at the time.

It has brought our family back together.

I just hope as Tom enters heaven and sees our loved ones, he is able to tell them, we are still united, we are still all in love with one another.

About Me

Enjoying the simple things in life. Watching the hummingbird, finding a new cousin while working on my genealogy, cutting my roses, finding a new treasure at a antique store....NOW that is excitment to me!
I have a 2 story Victorian with a wrap around porch, where my husband and I live with our dog Greta and cat Boots. I had to, it had a pink door the color of my Maternal Grandmothers house and pocket doors like my Paternal Grandparents house! In 2009 I bought my Paternal Grandparents home 2 hours away, in the town where I was born, we call it 1515. It was meant to bring my cousins and I together more often but it has been much more than that.
Oh it is a sentimental life!